NIGERIA: “The Herds” continued its long journey from Central Africa to the Arctic Circle Saturday, passing through Nigeria’s Makoko community, largely built on stilts in the Lagos Lagoon.
The Herds is a moving theatre performance made up of cardboard puppet animals that flee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the Arctic Circle in a bid to bring attention to the climate crisis.
The story goes that the animals will be forced out of their natural habitats due to global warming and displaced north, stopping in cities along the way and being joined by more animals. The team works with local artists in each city.
Mihlali Bele is a puppeteer travelling with The Herds, and said that the training the team does with artists in the communities they visit is one of the most important parts of the performance. “We’re not just teaching and facilitating how to manipulate these puppets, but also we get to have encounters and build community in each and every space that we are in,” she said.
The Herds comes from the team that was behind The Walk in 2021, where a 12-foot tall puppet of a refugee girl called Little Amal drew attention to the refugee crisis by traveling to 15 countries – from Turkey to the U.K., Ukraine, Mexico and the U.S. Amir Nizar Zuabi was on that team and is now the artistic director of The Herds.
He was also a part of The Walk. “This occurrence of animals invading into cities is a metaphor. It’s a metaphor for things that are not normal, that are becoming normal. And hopefully this becomes a way to talk about what we’re about to lose if we continue blindfolded-ly running forward after fossil fuel,” he said.
The Herds will stay in Lagos until Monday, before moving on to Dakar, Senegal, its last stop in Africa.
Africanews and AP
